Biden Predicts Arizona Win but Says, ‘We’re Not Cocky’

Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images(PHOENIX) — Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Phoenix Thursday afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden confidently predicted he and President Obama would win re-election in November — including the 11 electoral votes from Arizona — but added, “we’re not cocky about this at all.”

“We think we have a real shot at winning the presidential race here in Arizona,” he said to raucous applause at a luncheon inside the Heard Museum.

The Obama-Biden campaign team has tried to buck conventional wisdom that Arizona is a staunchly red state. It has opened several offices in Arizona, hoping to spur a massive grassroots organizing effort there over the next three months, focusing particularly on college campuses and Latino communities, officials say.

Democrats insist demographic shifts in the state, and activism around the state’s controversial immigration law, bode well for Obama’s chances to pick it up in November.

Arizona, which Obama lost by seven points to John McCain in 2008, has only voted Democratic once in the past 10 general elections.﻿